(Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime) By Nick Hagen: WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (19-1-2, 12 KO’s) could well be the next boxer to get the chance to take Floyd Mayweather Jr’s ‘0’ on the 3rd of May 2014.
Many fans including myself felt Lara put in a great performance against Austin Trout (26-2, 14 KO’s) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York last Saturday. The way that Lara picked his shots, used great ring movement, feints and showed elusive abilities, was fantastic to watch.
Let’s not forget his opponent Austin Trout is a well respected boxer, who in only April of this year went 12 rounds with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Some people have said on record that Trout is not the same boxer, since his narrow defeat to Alvarez. However, I do not agree. Saturday’s defeat was more a combination of Trout just not having the ability and ring movement to get close to Lara to land his shots. There are not many boxers in The Junior Middleweight division, who could have done better, so let’s not take anything away from Trout for trying and to Lara for his dominant performance.
Boxing is purely a business to Mayweather and any future opponent, will be picked very carefully by Mayweather Promotions to maximize all PPV, gate and merchandise sell’s etc. Lara may not be the obvious opponent for Mayweather on the 3rd of May. However, this is a boxer who has built a decent reputation for himself, particularly in the USA. As an added bonus, Lara also brings to the table the WBA Light Middleweight belt.
Stylistically I feel that Lara could give Mayweather more problems than any previous opponent he has faced. As I have previously stated, Lara is highly skilled (mainly due to his Cuban/ Amateur pedigree), picks his shots carefully, doesn’t waste unnecessary energy and show’s great intelligence in the ring.
Lara could probably match Mayweather in the majority of departments and as we saw last Saturday in the knockdown against Trout, possesses more power than Mayweather, which could be the deciding factor if they were to meet in the ring.
I’m sure that Lara is very high on Mayweather Promotions’ list and so long as they are confident they could sell the fight, I personally feel it is one they will actually pick. Let’s not forget that after Manny Pacquiao (who is tied in the HBO and Bob Arum), Danny Garcia, Sergio Martinez (also tied in with HBO) Amir Khan and Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, there isn’t actually that many worthy opponents for Mayweather.
Mayweather is expected to name his next opponent at some point this week, with Khan being the current bookies favorite. However, please remember Alvarez was a shock pick for his previous fight, so he might surprise again.
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